Hailemariam Desalegn

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CPJ is among a group of more than 40 regional and international press freedom and civil society organizations that have signed a joint letter to Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn expressing concern over the recent imprisonment of Ethiopian journalists under the country's far-reaching 2009 anti-terrorism law.

Nairobi, April 28,
2014--The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the Ethiopian
government's arrests of nine journalists in one of the worst crackdowns against
free expression in the country.

"With the latest arrests, Ethiopian authorities are turning the peaceful exercise of free expression into a crime," said CPJ East Africa Representative Tom Rhodes.

On Sunday, a public prosecutor in the capital, Addis Ababa, accused the detainees--editor Asmamaw Hailegeorgis, freelancers Tesfalem Waldyes and Edom Kassaye, and bloggers Abel Wabella, Atnaf Berhane, Mahlet Fantahun, Natnail Feleke, Zelalem Kibret, and Befekadu Hailu--of working with foreign human rights organizations and using social media to create instability in the country, according to news reports and local journalists. Tesfalem, Asmamaw, and Zelalem will have their next court hearing on May 7, while the rest will appear in court on May 8, the same sources said. The journalists have not been formally charged with a crime.

New York, May 15, 2013--Ethiopian
police in Addis Ababa questioned an editor for several hours today in
connection with a story published in October about the widow of the late
Ethiopian leader Meles Zenawi, according to news reports.

Ethiopians awakened this morning to state
media reports that Prime
Minister Meles Zenawi, 57, the country's leader for 21 years, had died late
Monday in an overseas hospital of an undisclosed disease. Within seconds, Ethiopians
spread the news on social
media;
within minutes, international news media were issuing bulletins. Finally, after
weeks of government silence and obfuscation over Meles' health, there was
clarity for Ethiopians anxious for word about their leader. Still, it was left
to unnamed sources to fill in even the basic details. Meles died in a Brussels
hospital of liver cancer, these sources told international news organizations,
and he had been ill for many months.

"Death of yet another African leader highlights secrecy & lack of transparency when it comes to ailing leaders," CNN's Faith Karimi noted on Twitter, where the hashtag #MelesZenawi was trending globally.